SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/9/2015
11:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus: The Victory
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Revelation
12:9
Message of the
verses: “9 And the great dragon was thrown down, the
serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world;
he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
In my Spiritual Diary from 08-08-05 I wrote the following
and in it you can see that there is a different reason for the beginning of
this war in heaven: “These verses speak
of a war in heaven between Michael and his angel’s waged war against
Satan. It may seem strange that Satan
still has access in heaven, but he does as can be seen in the book of Job. Satan is the accuser of the brethren and according
to verse nine he also deceives the nations and the whole world. One of the ways he deceives the nations is to
making them think that believers are dangerous, deluded, and destructive, and
the makings of this can surely be seen in this country even today. At this point in the tribulation period Satan
will be thrown out of heaven and not allowed to return there to accuse the
brethren again. Dr. Wiersbe states that
the reason that Satan is kicked out of heaven at this time is because he
becomes so angry after accusing the brethren at the judgment seat of Christ
because the Church will be found not guilty to all of his accusations. After this the war will begin and Satan will
be kicked out.”
We see once again that Satan is
thrown out of heaven onto the earth and we looked at the first time this
happened from what Isaiah wrote in 14:12 “"How you have fallen from
heaven, O star of the morning, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the
earth, You who have weakened the nations!”
Luke 10:18 also speaks of this when Jesus said “"I was watching
Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”
We see the term “great” in reference to Satan and that is because of his
great power that he uses to inflict harm and to bring about disasters. MacArthur writes “Earlier, he was described
as having seven heads, seven crowns, and ten horns. That description pictures Satan as the ruler
of the world.”
In this verse we see that Satan is
also called the “devil” “Diabolos
(devil) means ‘slander,’ ‘defamer,’ or ‘false accuser’—a fitting title for
Satan, the ultimate false accuser (cf. v. 10).
He accuses men to God, God to men, and men to other men. Satan is a malicious prosecutor of God’s
people, constantly trying to arraign them before the bar of God’s holy justice”
writes John MacArthur. Even though he
accuses believers before God we can read that this will do no good “Therefore
there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” writes Paul in
Romans 8:1. Paul goes on to write in
Romans 8:31-34 “31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us,
who is against us? 32 He who did not
spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with
Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect?
God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is
He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who
also intercedes for us.”
The Hebrew word for Satan means “adversary,”
and this is a fitting name for him, but the shame of it all is that he was
created as the most beautiful creature that God created, but as we learn from
Ezekiel it was his beauty that caused him to become proud as Isaiah writes of
and thus he sinned before God and fell.
Next we see that the dragon is
described as the one “who deceives the
whole world.” MacArthur says “Deceives
translates the present participle of the very planao (‘to lead astray’, to mislead,’ or ‘to deceive’). The use of the present tense indicates that
this is Satan’s habitual, continual activity; as he constantly accuses
believers, so also he ‘deceives the whole world. Beginning with the Fall, Satan has duped the
human race throughout its history. He
is, warned Jesus, ‘a liar and the father of lies’ (John 8:44). Satan lures people to their destruction by causing
them to pay ‘attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons’ (1 Tim.
4:1). He seduces people to believe him
and not God—to believe he tells the truth and God lies (cf. Gen. 3:4).”
All of this deception and trickery will come to the
highest point in the Tribulation Period for it is that time when Satan will
have his man, the antichrist, ruling the world, along with the false prophet
making up what has been called the unholy trinity. One of the reasons for all of this to happen
is because before the beginning of the Tribulation Period the Rapture will take
all true believers out of the world, and another reason is that Satan and all
of his demons will be thrown out of heaven and they all will be on the
earth. We have to believe that all of
this is in the plan of God so that as we have said many times earlier that
planet earth will return to complete control of God as Satan and all
unbelievers will be thrown into the abyss at the end of the Tribulation Period
and Christ will rule from His throne in Jerusalem and Israel will receive their
promised kingdom.
MacArthur concludes by writing “As they were cast out of
heaven with Satan at his original rebellion (12:4), so also will his angels be
thrown down with him after his final expulsion from heaven. The arrival of the excommunicated demon host
(and their evil commander) on earth will add immeasurably to the horror of the
Tribulation. They will join the innumerable
demons already roaming the earth, the lately arrived demons belched forth from
the abyss (9:1-3), and two hundred million other formerly bound demons
(9:13-16) to create an unimaginable holocaust of evil.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: “’Because you
have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of
testing, that hour which is about to come upon the whole world, to test those
who dwell on the earth (Rev. 3:10.”
My Steps of Faith for Today:
To love the Lord with all of my heart,
soul, mind, and strength, and to pursue living in the love of the Lord.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “A tiller of the ground” (Gen.
4:2).
Today’s Bible
question: “To what was the captain of
our salvation made perfect?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/9/2015 11:42 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment